


Afterwards

by storyandshark



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Afterlife, does it count as major character death if it's retroactive?, idk I'll tag it anyway, post 119
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-03
Updated: 2018-12-03
Packaged: 2019-09-06 08:18:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16828729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/storyandshark/pseuds/storyandshark
Summary: An explosion. A death. The averting of the apocalypse. An ending, in a lot of ways. But it's not the end. There's always something that comes after.





	Afterwards

**Author's Note:**

> guess who listened to 119 again and is sad as fuck

Tim Stoker is dead.

He's fully aware of this fact. The last thing he remembers is pressing the button on the detonator, then blinding light and heat and pressure. Then nothing. It's that nothing he's currently floating in, aware but really not. He can't see anything or feel anything or really think anything, but he still exists in some capacity. Slowly, he starts to come back to himself, gaining the feeling of arms and legs and a body.

He opens his eyes.

He's not sure what he expected. Tim's never been too big on the whole afterlife thing, but he'd always hoped there'd be something so he'd get another chance at having a life that didn't suck as much. He didn't know if he'd end up in heaven or hell or the underworld or whatever, and he's still not sure. He's in a room with some things in it, but it's all fuzzy and not very corporeal. He thinks he's standing but he's not sure. If he had any actual physical feeling in any part of his body, he might be feeling dizzy, but at the moment he feels absolutely nothing.

He just stays where he is for a while. Not much else he can do. Eventually, the room gains more actual room-like qualities. He can see actual things — a chair, a table, a couch — and recognizes it as his flat. He knows he's standing now, so he sits down. He waits for what feels like hours as the room around him solidifies completely. He stands again after a while and goes to the door. Maybe this is the waiting room to the afterlife. Maybe he's not really dead. Maybe he's just been dreaming for a really long time.

He opens the door and instantly decides that yes, this is mostly definitely the afterlife.

Because Danny is in the next room.

“Danny?” Tim blinks a few times, his mind spinning.

“Tim!” Danny says, and strides forward to wrap his brother in a hug.

Tim just stands there, unable to move. He feels the crushing grip of his brother, not a thing wearing his skin, his real brother. Danny, alive. Or, well, you know. Tim finally returns the hug, holding Danny even tighter than Danny is holding him. Tim buries his face in his brother's shoulder and feels himself start crying.

“It's okay,” Danny soothes. “You're here now. We're here now.”

This is supposed to be Tim's job. He's the big brother, he should be the one trying to comfort his little brother, like after he scraped his knees on the sidewalk or like the time he'd fallen down some stairs and broken his arm. He's supposed to be the mature one, the collected one, the one to take care of Danny. But fuck it, he thinks, he deserves some comfort after blowing himself up with C4.

“That was a hell of a way to go,” Danny says, almost like he knew what Tim was thinking about. “I'm glad you wiped the smile off that plastic bitch's face before you went out.”

Tim finally lets go, wipes his eyes with one hand. “Yeah, that wasn't too bad. You saw everything then?”

Danny smiles. “‘Course I did. You really think I wouldn't keep an eye on what my little brother was doing down there? Pun absolutely not intended, by the way, sorry about that one.”

“I missed you,” Tim says, as if that isn't a horrendous understatement.

“I know,” Danny says. “I know.”

And Tim feels an enormous weight lift off his shoulders. All the bitterness and regret and the pressing feeling of being trapped leave him all at once. Because it's okay now, he made it. There's no more monsters, no more Elias, no more Archives bullshit. He'd saved the world and died doing it and now he's okay.

“This is real, right?” Tim doesn't doubt that it's real, but it never hurts to check.

Danny shrugs. “I think so.”

It won't really matter if it isn't, Tim thinks. He wouldn't be able to tell. It's real enough.

“So, what's it like up in... whatever this is?” he says.

“Oh, not much. It's pretty cool once you get used to it.” To demonstrate, Danny waves a hand and rearranges the layout of the entire room. “I've given up urban exploration, though. Think it's for the best.”

Tim kind of wants to laugh, but it's a little too soon for that. “Yeah, probably is. Are there other good vacation spots up here, or is it all just boring flats?”

A door appears as Danny gestures at the wall. “Why don't you check?”

Tim flinches involuntarily. “Uh, not great with sudden doors, Danny. Little trauma associated with those.”

“Oh,” Danny says, smacking his forehead. “Yeah, yeah, sorry about that. I promise I'm not some knife hand freak.”

Danny goes and opens the door for Tim. Behind it is a mountain, not a mountain that Tim recognizes, but a good-looking one nonetheless. Perfect for climbing. Danny shuts the door and then opens again, revealing a river, then a beach, then a nice café, then a forest. They can go anywhere. Tim grins. He can go anywhere. He's not going to be trapped in a stupid archive or those awful tunnels anymore. He's free to do whatever he wants.

“Oh, hey, before I forget,” Danny says, waiting to reopen the door after shutting it. “There's someone else that wants to see you.”

Tim doesn't even have to take time to think about who it might be. “Sasha?”

Danny just smiles and opens the door again. There's a woman there, turned facing away from them. At the sound of the door, she looks toward them, and all at once, Tim knows for sure this place is real.

It's Sasha. The _real_ Sasha. And Tim knows it's the real Sasha because he remembers her now. He remembers what the real Sasha looks like, and she's here. She and Danny are both here, alive and unharmed and with him.

“Tim?” Sasha says, then smiles. “Thought I might be seeing you soon.”

Tim starts crying again, and this time he runs to Sasha and hugs her and lifts her off the ground. She makes a surprised noise and then laughs, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. Tim puts her back down but keeps holding her. After a second, Danny comes and joins the group hug, wrapping his arms around both of them.

“I'm so sorry,” Tim says, not sure who he's saying it to. “I'm so sorry.”

Sasha grabs his shoulders and pushes him back, looking directly into his eyes. “Tim Stoker, if you apologize to me one more time about something you had no control over, I swear I'm going to kick your ass back into the mortal world.”

“Seconded,” Danny says.

Tim wipes his eyes again, sniffling in a way that would have probably embarrassed him had it been anyone but Danny and Sasha. “Yeah. You're right.”

“And you kind of saved the world, Tim. I think that more than makes up for anything else,” Sasha says, then perks up. “Hey, I have something that I want your help with.”

“ _Fun_ help with or _I'm going to have to try and make up an excuse_ help with?”

“The good kind,” Danny says. “You're going to really enjoy this.”

Sasha breaks away and opens the door behind them, beckoning Danny and Tim to follow. They do. On the other side of the door is a place Tim recognizes well, the entrance to a building. Tim's heart (if he actually has one now, being dead and all) drops as he sees it. The Magnus Institute. If there's anywhere he _doesn't_ want to be, it's there.

“I thought you hated this place,” Tim says, frowning.

“I do,” Sasha says. “I was going to do this before, but I wanted the first time to be with you.”

“If that's some sort of weird euphemism-” Tim starts, but stops when Sasha pulls an item out of thin air and hands it to him.

A Molotov cocktail. Tim stares at it, then grins. “It isn't the real one, obviously,” Danny says. “But it should provide a little catharsis.”

“Oh, it will,” Tim says.

There's suddenly a weight in his other hand, and Tim looks down and sees a lighter. He opens it and flicks it on, then touches the flame to the cloth stuffed in the Molotov. It catches instantly, and Sasha makes another Molotov and holds it out for him to light. She hands another to Danny, who considers for a second, shrugs, and accepts it.

“On three?” Tim says, and gets two nods.

He counts down. They all throw the Molotovs at once. The building catches instantly. Danny whistles. Sasha lets out a whoop. Tim smiles.

Tim stands there with Danny and Sasha and watches the Magnus Institute burn to the ground.


End file.
